Moving Picture World (Sep 1916)

1820 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD September 16, 1916 Mr. Peters, in both appearance and manner, gives a convincing portrayal of the aggressively honest statesman, while Miss Kane possesses enough beauty and charm to make her influence over man credible. Mr. Burton fulfills the public's idea of a scheming senator, who smokes large cigars continuously. The story is plausible and at times dramatic. "Under the Gaslight Augustin Daly's Play Is Adapted Into a Stirring Screen Melodrama — Released by Biograph. Reviewed by Lynde Denig. THE acting of Lionel Barrymore, playing a low and altogether brutal character of the underworld, is enough to raise this three-part picture above the class of ordinary melodrama. His performance is forceful in the extreme; he fairly lives the part of the man who abuses his wife and children with equal readiness, and assists in the scheme whereby his infant daughter is substituted for the child of a wealthv Scene from "Under the Gaslight" (Biograph). family. Mrs. Marston, as the wife, is an able second in presenting the family brawls, enacted in scenes of the most depressing squalor, whereas others in a long cast are unfailingly suitable to the characters introduced. We have Irene Howley as the young woman of unfortunate parentage, who, owing to the substitution of babies, grows up In the belief that she is an heiress, while the rightful heir to the fortune, the innocent victim of many machinations, is portrayed by Millicent Evans. Miss Howley's performance Is particularly worthy of note because of her skilled use of facial expressions in conveying emotions. Isabel Rea may always be counted on to present an attractive appearance on the screen; then in other roles of varied importance there are such able players of early Biograph fame as Thomas Jefferson. Complex as the plot becomes In the photoplay adaptation, it is developed with commendable clearness, and if an audience Is looking for either action or thrills they will be found in sufficient quantity. Director Lawrence Marston gained some of his most startling effects in the last reel, most of which was staged on or near a river dock where a number of crimes are attempted and nearly accomplished. For a final thrill, a man is tied to the rails of a track in front of an approaching train that he may be rescued not a moment too soon. There is more real melodrama in these three reels than is generally found in a five-reel production of the same nature. "The Diamond Runners" Lively Detective Melodrama in Five Reels, Featuring Helen Holmes. Reviewed by Louis Reeves Harrison. ANIMATED and moving vigorously, "The Diamond Runners" depicts a new phase in detective melodrama and is more than a mere vehicle for Helen Holmes. The entire cast Is good, the types well selected and opportunity better balanced than in a play written exclusively for a star. Miss Holmes has an attractive personality, and the ease with which she responds to demands upon her ability as an actress indicates experience and One training, but she has something yet to learn. She trusts so much to the situation that she often fails to give it emphasis. This is possibly due to a desire on her part not to overact, but all minds in a mixed audience are not rapid ones in the matter of comprehension, and it is better to intensify mental revelation on that account. The story relates to the operations of an organized gang of diamond smugglers, and no little ingenuity is shown in developing their methods of carrying uncut stones from the mines to the market, but it looks like an elaborate and expensive process, filled with peril, particularly when there is opposed to the clever crooks an equally clever band of de tectives alert to every movement made. Suspense is carefull> maintained, however, and a small love story interwoven, but, as in all cases where the love story is of secondary interest, it fails to stir sympathetic interest. It is often demanded in detective stories that "some love interest" must be injected, but it must be more than injected at random — it must rival the satisfaction of curiosity in the solution of the crime proDlem. In vivacity and capable treatment, "The Diamond Runners" finds its chief merits. t(f~T^ "The Country that God Forgot A Gripping Photodrama of the Far West by Selig, Featuring Mary Charleson, Thomas Santschi and George W. Fawcett — Written and Directed by Marshall Neilan. Reviewed by James S. McQuade. HE Country That God Forgot" tells the story of a man's great love for his wife, of that wife nearly wrecking her own life and his by failing to understand her own heart, and of a loyal partner -whose friendship is stanch and true in the face of death itself. Marshall Neilan has succeeded in concentrating all one's attention for over an hour on a God-forsaken, arid waste of desert, interminable in its monotony of sage brush, cactus and sand, all because we witness amidst the loathsome dreariness the testing of a heart-sick, little woman who longs to see the great, pulsing, outside world of which she knows nothing. And much as has been written of Western life in this country, one cannot fail to be impressed that the story is somewhat different from any that has been read, and that it grips strongly at the elemental life that is in each one of us. The opening scene gives us the atmosphere of the story in a flash, and then the desert waste fades out and we see the little woman of the story looking out wistfully and hopelessly into the future. The lonely little cabin in which she is maidof-all-work for her husband, Steve Brant (Thomas Santschi), and his sturdy partner, Cal Hearn (George W. Fawcett), is typically Western both inside and out. Its loneliness, above all, comes home to us with the sense of a numbing pain. Little wonder is it that Mrs. Helen Brant welcomes the stranger, Craig Wells (Chas. Gerrard), who has come from the busy world outside, and that she listens to his wonderful descriptions of the things that take place in it with the wrapt attention of a child who hears for the first time the tale of Aladdin's lamp. Director Neilan has furnished us a typical interior of an old-time Western gambling saloon as Mrs. Brant tells Craig Wells the story of her origin and of her marriage to Steve Brant. The scene is true to the life. The faro layouts, the roulette wheel, the players, the young ■women habitues and the widely differing types of men present will bring back recollections that had faded out to many an old timer. Mr. Neilan's Scene from "The Country That God Forgot" (Selig). method of introducing to the spectator the three partners — Steve Brant, Cal Hearn and Mike Donovan — will be appreciated for its novelty. We first see them on horseback, trotting along a road, with a little burro in the rear bearing their camping outfit. Each man, in turn, is taken by a close-up as he trots past, so that the introduction of the players who impersonate them appears naturally in the story. The fight in the gambling room, in which the three partners participate, is very well directed and sustained. When Steve Brant (Thomas Santschi) forces the Mexican who had precipitated the quarrel into an inner room, and then follows him and locks the door, the spectator is held in as great suspense as was the crowd in the gambling hall. After fifteen minutes Steve comes out alone, considerably disfigured, with his clothes in tatters. We all know that the other fellow got what was coming to him, without having seen a blow struck. Besides, censorship has been appeased. Mary Charleson's Helen Brant will appeal to all admirers of talented acting. In the final scene, where Helen lies between